This section is intended to introduce various aspects of the art, which may be associated with aspects of the disclosed techniques and methodologies. This discussion is believed to assist in providing a framework to facilitate a better understanding of particular aspects of the disclosure. Accordingly, this section should be read in this light and not necessarily as an admission of prior art.
In the hydrocarbon industry computer-based or computer-assisted interpretation and decisions are made daily. The interpretation and decisions have associated uncertainty which may not be captured accurately. Attempts to describe the quality and level of certainty (QLOC) associated with these activities to date have focused on either uncertainty associated with data and/or qualitative post-analysis/comments assigned to these data, objects or decisions. Numerous methods are available to represent data uncertainty. These comments, often referred to as metadata, may describe the QLOC for the entire object and may incorporate geologic and data issues. In this process, the human factors associated with interim decisions, poor data, geologic complexity, user bias or lack of experience can be overlooked or not recorded. As a result final decisions may be based on insufficient or erroneous information, resulting in a sub-optimal understanding of the QLOC. There have been efforts to have users document interim issues in a digital journal/diary. This has been found to provide insufficient or erroneous information because user-supplied comments are captured sporadically at best and are subject to user bias, knowledge, and/or experience. Additionally, the comments frequently do not address negativity or lack of confidence in the decision. Furthermore, the comments are not spatially or temporally captured with the object, data or workflow being analyzed. Additionally, this commenting process is time-intensive and therefore is done infrequently, and even when done properly the commenting process increases the time to complete a data evaluation. There is a need in the hydrocarbon industry for time-efficient processes to capture continuous human factors associated with computer based oil and gas interpretation and decisions to improve the quality and level of certainty and understanding within the industry resulting in improved hydrocarbon management.